The Esquire slated for mid-February opening

In mid-2008, shortly after local businessman Chris Hill purchased The Esquire from Rick Grinnan, himself a well-known River Walk business owner, signs were taped to the front door saying: “Remodeling NADA… OPENING AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!!!” At the time of purchase, the storied bar had been closed for about 18 months. Bringing the old girl up to code, improvements to the building and the lull in the lending market, and the project took longer than anyone had anticipated.

Almost three years after Hill bought the building — and five years and some change since it served its last drink — and The Esquire, 155 E. Commerce St., which first opened in 1933, is close to opening her eyes again.

Hill said he’s shooting for around Valentine’s Day for The Esquire’s grand re-opening.

“Like the old Esquire, we hope to have a great cross section of people come through here — from local businessmen to attorneys to judges to people waiting for the bus around the corner to tourists on the River Walk,” Hill said.

Unlike the old Esquire, the bar is going in a more upscale direction.

As head bartender, Hill has hired Jeret Pena, 29, a local cocktail guru currently finishing his gig at Le Midi on East Houston Street. There, he gave the French restaurant an identity by cultivating one of the best cocktail menus downtown — a mix of classics and moderns — and infusing Houston Street with the sounds of live music, booking rockabilly, punk and blues bands on the weekends, bands which juxtaposed beautifully in the French restaurant setting.

The Esquire’s drink menu will have a strong classic cocktail element. “That’s the beauty of classics is that they’ve survived this long. You can use them as a template to reproduce other flavors,” said Pena, also founder of Spirit Enthusiasts of Texas, a group aimed at reintroducing the art of cocktail making.

The beer on tap will probably include local/regional brews such as Real Ale, Alamo and the newly-operational Ranger Creek. And there will be some wine.

Besides the cocktails, The Esquire will have a kitchen. Before it closed, you could often grab sustenance in the form of bar snacks or nachos — or from outside vendors like Vicenta Lozano, who, for decades, hawked her homemade tacos — but nothing like a kitchen.

Brooke Smith, 23 — a born and raised San Antonian who has studied in New England, Portland and Austin — will run the kitchen. She’s still building the menu, but Smith said they’ve decided on a few items like pulled pork empanadas with green chili sauce and fried pickles.

“It’s definitely going to be bar food all the way, but a little more upscale,” Smith said.

Chili, either fish tacos or a fish sandwich, and chicharrones are other items Smith said they’re considering.

At least in the Esquire’s later years, the idea of carefully-constructed cocktails and upscale food would certainly seem improper in a place that required a pat down before entering. Besides its mix of colorful customers, the bar was beloved for its cold beer and stiff mixed drinks — the cheaper the better. Just how much of a dichotomy there is between the new Esquire and the old one, we’ll have to wait and see.

“The price point is not going to be scary,” Pena said. “It’s going to be very competitive to what River Walk downtown is offering.”

This would take some research, but I wonder how much of the ’90s and ’00s versions of the Esquire resembled the version when the bar first opened, the same year Prohibition ended in 1933. Back in the day, The Esquire was one of downtown’s popular nightclubs, along with the storied Navy Club and Commander’s Room.

There is definitely a restoration aspect to The Esquire’s reopening. For example, the original tin ceiling has been restored. And layers of some kind of rubbery gunk has been removed from the floor, exposing the original tile floor. One casualty is the velvet wallpaper, which had to be removed because it was beyond repair. But an identically-patterned wallpaper is replacing it.

The River Walk stairway entrance will also be active, giving The Esquire two entrances. And seating will return to the patio overlooking the River Walk. Inside, the bathrooms were demolished and are now located on the other side of the back bar, the same space that was vacant for years and at one time a Mexican restaurant. The kitchen is going in that space, as well as the bathrooms and an elevator carrying people to and from the building’s River Walk space. That space is still being developed, but Hill said it could end up as a party space available for lease.

Before Hill purchased The Esquire, it was owned by Grinnan, who also owns the Republic of Texas restaurant on the River Walk. Grinnan had owned and operated The Esquire since 1981, when he purchased it from the Georges family. Grinnan closed the bar in September 2006, at the time announcing plans to convert it into a barbecue restaurant.